


Another stream, another donation

by hazelharbor



Category: League of Legends
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, POV Alternating, Pining, Slow Burn, Streamer AU, i just have feelings, its gonna be a long one so buckle up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:07:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28928544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelharbor/pseuds/hazelharbor
Summary: Headset: OnGame: QueueingChat: Emote wall
Relationships: Rakan/Xayah (League of Legends)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. Here for a good time

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea in my head for months and im. Sorry? i think? i dont know i just think they're neat and wanted them to be streamers is that so wrong

A few more adjustments to his hair, a touch up of eyeliner to his lower lid, Rakan blew himself a kiss in the mirror before heading back to his desk. Sitting down with a dramatic flair as he slides his headset back on, "Did you miss me?" He smolders before his eyes caught some thirst in his chat.

"I'm _not_ putting a foot cam on the stream!" A golden laugh nearly peaked the audio. "I told you guys. I'm also _eighty nine percent_ sure it's against the TOS. And I have an only fans for that." Rakan winks into his webcam with a hand brushing back blond locks for his stream to see right as the queue pops. 

"Just a few normal games, then we'll get on the rank grind." No real promises were made as he hovers his champion. The new season had just started and he had yet to even do his placement matches. Glancing over at his chat with the softest and proudest gaze, he made idle conversation with his adoring watchers. 

"I'm not going to feed!" A pause as he changed his rune page. "This time." The chat erupted in a chorus of disbelieving emotes proclaiming how fake that was. Rakan was never great at any game he streamed, he played them to have fun and relax. That was the atmosphere he'd cultivated. While most people were here to admire his looks, and he knew that, he also took pride in knowing his fan base was also around just go have a good time.  
  
Rakan's laning partner hovered their champion. The excitement on his face was impossible to miss as he sat up and blinked; it was his turn to be in disbelief. They're actually going to pick a character he never sees played, and is the perfect partner to his own. They were designed to be played together, and he never got anyone to play the other, but understandably she wasn't in a great place in the meta or something like that. He never payed that much attention to statistics. 

The game entered the next loading screen showing the names, levels, and masteries of all the players. Clicking to flip each champion card, Rakan read out the funniest names as he went down the list, the last one being his lane partner. " _Violet Raven_?" The chat went wild at her mastery. "That's almost a million!" Eyes widened with a disbelieving chuckle. "I was going to say I hope I don't let them down, I feel like they're going to hate this more than I thought." Flipping over his own card, he shows off his own high mastery. It was a little under half of his partner, but it's impressive all things considered.

Raising a mug from his desk to his lips, the blond held it to his lips and idly watched the chat scroll. People complaining about who's computer was running slow to make the load take this long, others talking about how they wish they could be his mug, and a handful just spamming hype emotes. 

The sound of the characters appearing on the starting platform brought his eyes back to his main monitor. Running in circles around his laning team mate after picking up the starting item and a few potions, Rakan sent a few in-game happy emotes and repeatedly started the dance function just to see the first few frames before typing in chat. 'Dance with me!!!'

Violet Raven flashed an angry emote as the gate dropped around their characters and then ran off to the forest around their lane, waiting to help the lane hunter take out the first beast before heading to their own lane. Customary, yes, but Rakan couldn't help feel betrayed that someone could pick his character's perfect partner; the one literally made and released as a set, and not even dance at spawn with him. This was a modern tragedy. Romeo and Juliet knew no pain like this.

"My _love_!" He called out to no one but his chat as he ran off after them to assist, his watchers responding with a wave of _'simp'_ in chat.

 _'Dance with me!~'_ He types again, repeatedly mashing the dance button.

Without a word their character walks over and joins in their unified dance animation.

Chat went wild. _Modern romance_ , they called it. _I ship it!_ _You better add them as a friend_. _GOALS_.

Pressing tab, Rakan watched the timers for the forest beasts so he doesn't miss helping the hunter. Desperately not wanting to end the dance, he waits until the other leaves first. 

After an easy leash on the first creature, the forest dweller puts up a thumbs up emote as the two stroll into their lane. Promptly hiding in the brush to the side, Rakan waits for either enemy to overstep. And as push came to shove, it all falls into place so quickly. He knocked the enemy support into the air, the Violet Raven was there in an instant to attack them into oblivion. A flashy display of confidence. 

'First Blood!' The game announcer calls, earning a few Enemy Missing pings from the other lanes in congratulations. 

This was going to be a fun game. 

  
\--------------------------------------  


Defeat pops up across the screen in gold text. "Can't win em all, but at least we had fun doing it." Chat chimes in with condolences and donations, one of them being read in automated text to voice. _'Add her and tell her we love her'_

"Of course I will." He responded, already sending the request from the end game stats screen. Clicking over into the damage chart tab, he chuffs "They really were the entire team's damage."

As the game lobby came up, Rakan took off his headset. "I'm gonna get another drink, be patient my lovelies!" He chirps, walking out of frame. 

Would they actually add him back? Of course, who wouldn't. His charm radiates through every form of media without question. Who could resist, he mulled over as he poured another glass of water. The real challenge was to get them to play again.

Returning to his chair and spinning to face his second monitor as he put on his headset, his eyes were assaulted with a wall of dancing excited emotes. _'SHES ON THE LIST'_

"Why are you guys so certain they're a girl." Looking over at the game client, he saw the name Violet Raven online in his friends list. Of course they added him back. No one can escape the charm.

_'My stream chat ADORES you~ <3'_

_'mine says you're ass and should uninstall.'_

Ouch. 

Rakan's moderators switched the stream chat over to slow mode so he could actually read what was going on. The general consensus was that this person was the devil incarnate. How could anyone be mean to the _ever so charming_ Rakan. He quickly opened up his browser and searched the site for the screen name of his new friend, coming up with one result. 

For the first time in a long time, Rakan was quiet on stream. The channel on screen for his viewers to see, there was actually a girl, wrapped up in a comfortable looking hoodie two sizes too big with half her face obscured with warm toned violet hair. 

"She's gorgeous." His second monitor went ignored as he propped up his head in his hands, eyes half lidded, mesmerized. His fans, on the other hand, were torn. _She's a bitch_ , they cried. _Calm down you simp_ , others called out. But what finally caught his attention was the flood of stream bit rewards being cashed in. He looks at his stream program to see the flood of _'Hydrate'_ messages, followed by the chat telling him to _'take a sip, simp'_. Shaking his head with a joyous smile, he chugs the glass he had just got up to get. 

Scrolling over to her chat, he sees the hate for him, and he can't help but do a list of things. 

Step one, subscribe. 

The notification comes up in the Raven's stream. " _Really_?" She sounds just under the bar of angry, almost bored if not unamused.

Step two, donate. The automated text to speech comes up, _'Round two?~'_ And as if the chat could get more toxic, they hit him with a wave of insults. Rakan's own stream lighting up with positive messages from his fans.   
  
With a resigned sigh, she stopped her queue and looks to the side, presumably at her own chat. There was a moment of hesitance from her as Rakan's eyes scanned her chat. Walls of text boiled down to calling him trash in a thousand different ways and how she could never play a game with him and win.  
  
"Bet." Her voice firm and challenging blessed his ears as she accepted his party request.

Step three, Profit.   
  
_'u are actually ass she couldnt even carry you last game'_  
  
_'Queen deserves better than this, why is she humoring you.'_

His chat was starting to be infiltrated by her toxic knights as he moved her stream over to his second screen, fitting snuggly next to his chat. Rakan started the queue again before typing in the in-game chat. 'Your fans really hate me that much huh'

_'you're bad at the game'_

_'I'm here for a good time, not to be the highest rank in history, my Queen'_

"If you guys are in his chat calling me queen, shut the fuck up." Rakan visibly jumps as he hears her voice on her stream before he goes to mute it. His chat immediately return to calling him a simp for leaving it open. 

Queue pops. Rakan hovers the same one he played last game. The Violet Raven also hovering the same as before. "We're gonna win this one, guys. My eyes are Open and this time," He glance over at her stream to see her mouth moving, unable to tell what shes saying on mute. "I'm paying full attention." 


	2. Taken as a challenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A break to blow off steam, only to pick up more stress.

Long, deep purple painted fingernails casually tap against a sleek black computer desk as golden eyes uninterestedly attempt to read the flood of chat messages on the screen in front of them. The other hand mindlessly scratches the head of a black cat situated on the side of the desk, the low rumble of a purr emitting from it. With a sigh, said fingers petting the cat come up to the bridge of a nose, gripping it in frustration.  
  
“Alright, we’re taking five.” Xayah finally speaks, after a few moments of silence that she had deemed necessary for herself. She removes her hand from her face and instead grips an empty mug that had been sitting on the desk. “I need more coffee.” And with that, she brought up a “Be Right Back” screen to her stream, leaning back in her gaming chair and stretching before finally rising to her feet. 

A particularly frustrating ranked game had left her mood rather sour, and she desperately needed a refill. She makes her way to her kitchen, her dark fluffy companion jumping off the desk and following not far behind her. 

She leans against the counter as she waits for her coffee to brew, humming in thought as she looks down at her cat on the floor. It stares up at her, a soft meow coming from it as she kneels down to give it scritches under its chin. “You’re right, Qaelin. I think it’s time for a quick ranked break.” Of course, her cat had no answers, and in fact, it had no idea what she was talking about-- but she occasionally found it helpful to voice her thoughts aloud, and her subject of choice was always the little man in front of her. She pats his head once more before raising to her feet again, grabbing her freshly brewed coffee, and returning to her desk with a sigh. 

She runs her fingers through her violet colored hair, before slipping her fox-eared headset back onto her head. She takes a sip of her coffee as she pulls away the “BRB” screen from her stream and resituates her facecam and game screen.  
  
“Okay, we’re taking a breather from ranked. That game fucking sucked and I need to blow off some steam in normals.” She side eyes her chat for a few moments as she switches her lobby to normals, taking another sip as she reads excited messages from her viewers.

When the queue pops up, she taps the accept button. A small smile creeps onto her face with what she’s greeted with; her support was choosing the champion that was made to duo with her personal favorite champion. Delightful. As long as they weren’t horrible, this would be a great way for her to blow off steam as she had intended. She locks in her own champion and watches her chat flood with jealous fans who’ve always wanted to duo with her as the two champions. She simply rolls her eyes.

She casually replies to her chat for a minute or two as she waits for the game to load in, returning her focus when she hears the game start. She watches her designated support run circles around her, spamming emoticons. She lets out a huff, pulling up her own emoji wheel and sending them an angry cat when they ask her to dance with them. 

With that, she moves her champion off the spawn platform and into the forest above their lane, placing herself in a bush to watch for invades from the enemies. Her support is quick to follow her, mashing the dance animation a few steps away from her. She sighs and relents, moving her champion over to theirs and watching as their animations sync up as they dance in unison. She can’t help but let out a small chuckle as she eyes her chat, once again flooded with jealous fans. 

She leaves the animation to help their hunter teammate, then heads to her own lane with her support in tow. She watches them stride into the bush, and blinks in recognition. “Ah, so perhaps they do know what they’re doing. Good, that makes things easier for me.” 

She focuses on setting up her minion wave while she awaits their engage on the enemy, reacting immediately when they jump in on their support. In seconds, the enemy support is dead, and she lets out a single laugh.

“Easy.”

\--------------------------------------

  
  
  


When a red flash comes up on Xayah’s screen, and the word _“DEFEAT”_ reads back at her in big, golden letters, she can’t help but let out a noise of frustration. She was unbelievably fed, but unable to close out their victory because her top laner was never in their team fights when her support chose to engage. Both parties were to blame, truthfully, but her chat was ruthless in their distaste for her support. 

_‘omg that support was DOG’_

_‘they should uninstall’_

_‘all they had to do was get carried and they couldn’t even do that’_

Xayah, admittedly, had seen far worse in the years she’d dedicated to this game, especially since this was casual and not even ranked. She didn’t care to argue with her viewers, though. Afterall, they were kinda right.

“That top laner pissed me off too. How difficult is it to learn the proper time to be _split-pushing_ vs not?”

She brings her forgotten now cold cup of coffee to her lips, her brows furrowing as she sees a new notification on her sidebar. She sets her mug down and clicks on the tiny “1” being displayed to her. She’s met with a friend request from the support her chat was currently flaming relentlessly. She’s too slow to stop the small snort of laughter that comes out, once again returning her attention to her chat.

A flood of _“DON’T”_ spams her chat, and she can’t help but agree with them. She didn’t particularly see a reason as to why she should accept their friend request. She switches her stream chat into slow mode, before asking her viewer base a question.

“Why do you guys hate them so much? I play with shitty players all the time.”

She knew the answer, it was because of the champions they played. Most of Xayah’s recent ranked career had been her being a slave to the meta, mostly abandoning her favorite champion to carry games easier as characters who were stronger in the current state of the game. So seeing her return to the champ and play with some random-- who wasn’t good by any means-- frustrated her fanbase.

She was surprised when she saw a different message among the midst of _‘they’re bad’_ and _‘why do they get to play with you’_ ; a viewer of hers had apparently recognized the username of the player and called them _‘a shitty gamer who just streams for attention because he’s pretty’_. 

Xayah drags her hand down her face and sighs. This was the exact kind of streamer that she really had no care for, afterall, she could care less about what she looked like on her own streams. She only cared about her gameplay, as did her fans. She clicks open the stream that her viewer had linked, eyeing the blond man on his stream before he promptly left his computer to presumably do something, she wasn’t sure, she had the stream muted so her audience couldn’t see or hear it. 

He was pretty, as her viewer had said, not that Xayah really cared. Appearances had never really meant much to her. She looks at all the people cheering about her in his chat and hums in amusement. 

“Eh, whatever,” she states simply, accepting his friend request and closing the stream. There wasn’t really any harm in just accepting the friend request, it’s not like she was required to interact with him by accepting it. 

Her chat did _not_ share her opinion on this as the slow mode ends and the chat box is quickly filled with _‘WTF RAVEN’_ , _‘WHY’_ , and an arrangement of angry and crying emojis. Xayah, frankly, just finds their reactions funny.

When a message pops up from him, she smiles.

_‘My stream chat ADORES you~ <3’ _

She had just seen as much when she had peeked at his stream. She definitely couldn’t say the same for him about her own chat, though. She types back to him.

_‘mine says you’re ass and should uninstall.’_

The uninstall argument was never one she personally agreed with, afterall, how are you supposed to get better at something if you just stop? It was rather ridiculous, in her opinion. She finishes the last of her cold coffee and sets her mug to the side, leaving the end game screen from her last match and returning to her lobby. 

She starts the queue for her next game, sighing and resting her chin in her palm. She turns her attention to her monitor with her stream when she hears the sound of a new person subscribing. She recognizes the name immediately, as she had just been looking at his stream a moment ago.

“Really?” She states more than questions, her tone flat and unamused. She hadn’t really expected him to look for her stream. When she hears the donation sound follow quickly behind the prior subscription noise, she all but glares at the monitor showing her stream. When the text to voice reads out the _‘Round two?~’_ he had typed out to her, she facepalms. 

Removing her hand from her face, she removes herself from her current queue in game, and glances at her chat. It’s full of distaste for the man, a barrage of insults. She feels a little bad if he’s reading all of these, but not enough to ask them to stop. A few of their comments make her raise an eyebrow curiously.

_‘even you can’t carry him. you’ll never win a game with him’_

A challenge. He might suck, but he’s not as bad as her chat is groaning about. She’s positive she could easily carry him in a game where she was at the top of her game, and she’d prove it to her chat. Not that they actually care, but her competitive mindset had already decided.

“Bet.” Though a reply of only one word, her voice is stern and you can hear the challenge in it as she accepts his party request and joins his lobby. She takes a break from looking at her chat, knowing it's still filled with insults and crying emojis as to why she’s playing with someone like him. They were the ones that drove her to this, afterall. She had no reason to prove herself, but she did find it amusing. 

She instead focuses on the chat message that pops up. 

_‘Your fans really hate me that much huh’_

She laughs.

_‘you’re bad at the game’_

She wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything for him, that isn’t and never has been her style. Not that she needed to, she’s sure he knows that he’s not very good. She lets out a groan at the reply from him that follows.

_‘I’m here for a good time, not to be the highest rank in history, my Queen’_

“If you guys are in his chat calling me queen, shut the fuck up,” she grumbles angrily, looking back to her chat as a handful of _‘sorry’_ and _‘sorry my queen’_ come into view. Her fanbase simping for her in this way was her least favorite thing about streaming, but she knew she couldn’t really get them to stop. Plus, with the donations she receives from random gamers proclaiming that they love her, she wasn’t about to complain. But it was frustrating and embarrassing for it to be brought outside of her stream chat and into normal conversation. 

When the queue pops and they load into champion selection, she watches him choose the same champion as their previous game and follows suit. As they begin to load in, she sighs.

“We know his playstyle now. This should be much easier this time around, and I don’t have to feel as bad for flaming him when he does something stupid since he added _me_ as a friend.”

As the game loads, she types to send him a private message before leaving the spawn platform. 

_‘just follow my lead. engage when i step up. watch my positioning. Carefully.’_

With that, she’s once again running out of their spawn into the forest with the same man in tow behind her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here's xayah's pov of chapter 1 events. My friend is a lil shy about writing things to post so i'll be leaving them un-named, but here's their contribution. tell them you love them regardless cause their characterization of xayah gets me feeling some kinda way <3


	3. New girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new girl across the hall is finally moving in, but now the rhythm is off; Rakan misses the noise.

The fool was so busy making heart eyes at his second monitor he almost missed the game loading in. Quickly grabbing his items and potions, he ran off after the Raven before seeing the message she'd sent in game. 

_‘just follow my lead. engage when i step up. watch my positioning. Carefully.’_

"Careful? But what about living life on the _edge;_ the _thrill!_ " Chat is filled to the brim with excited emojis and positive reactions to his reckless nature with a few gaming purists from his partner’s chat still trying to bring him down.

A glance back at his second monitor rips the cheeky grin from his face. Raven looked so serious. So no nonsense. This is just a game, how could someone be so twisted up about it? Maybe he'd take this game a little more serious than he intended.

Furrowed brow, he made conversation with chat as he hid in the brush to watch for interlopers before the beat assist. "We're gonna try _real hard_ this time, lovelies." Only pressing the dance key once to watch his solo animation, he puts up a sad emote for The Raven to see. 'Dance for luck?' he typed in game chat. His watchers gave their thoughts. 

_'try real hard to SIMP'_

_'He doesn't have to Try to do that.'_

_'yall gonna kiss or what'_

Almost missing the beast spawn, he scampers to assist before heading into lane with his partner. Same story as before, he jumped in and knocked up the enemy, but this time around he got caught in a bubble and couldn't get off any damage of his own. The Raven gets in a few blades, but no real blood was earned. Backing out of the fight at just under half health, his shield coming back up in twenty seconds, he went to ask for praise but instead was greeted with a message.

'you cant level 1 engage on everyone. wait for her to burn her cc'

'You got it boss!'

"Am I being coached right now?" The tone didn't fall on deaf ears as his second monitor lit up with commentary from the peanut gallery, telling him to dial it back and asking if this was him discovering a new kink. It wasn't, he swears. "When I become the _best gamer alive_ you'll just have more reasons to _love me!_ " He winked for the camera.

Teal blue eyes fixated on the model of his partner's character as she sent out blades with every attack, watching them get lodged in the ground behind the enemy. He was familiar with how her kit worked, watching as the Raven stepped around to catch enemies with every blade. 

He knew what she meant when she said to watch her positioning, but it was so hard to keep focused. So incredibly hard. 

"I don't have the patience for this, I wanna go in. Bring me the action!" A red icon flashed over his character as he stepped into the brush further down the lane, warning him to back up, but the desire to go in was eating him alive. "Yeah yeah, follow her lead, I know!" 

Rakan hadn't noticed he was shaking his leg until now. Looking away from the game, wandering eyes found their way back to the stream open on his other monitor. Picking up his mug to take a drink, he couldn’t help but watch her for a moment. She was saying something for sure, but _damn_ she was pretty when she was focused. 

How could she see what was going on with all that hair in her eyes? Why was she so serious about this game? And most importantly, why was she humoring him by continuing to play with his casual self?

Wait, what? He nearly had a spit-take but swallowed hard as attack sounds assaulted his ears. He snapped back into the game. Rapidly spamming his shield on his partner to try and save her but was too late as the last enemy attack landed, the game announcing first blood for the other team. 

Six enemy missing pings came up around him, this time in implied anger instead of praise. 

_‘Woopsies’_

_‘where WERE you?’_

She was pretty when she was mad too.

He felt a sting in his pride as his eyes darted for a moment to see her brows furrowed and pinching the bridge of her nose.

The look of a lost dog dawned his face for a moment before being replaced with his standard confidence. He made his character pace back and forth in front of the tower to avoid any skill shots. “Guys I’m gonna get good! No more distractions!” 

  
  


\-----------

  
  


“Hear me out on this,” Defeat appeared again on screen with a red spiraling graphic. “that one was closer for sure.” Knocking, hardly audible to the stream, took Rakan’s attention this time as his eyes shot toward the clock at the bottom corner of his screen. 

“Ah crap, guys I’m gonna have to cut the stream short.” He opened the chat between him and Violet Raven. “I’ll be there in a sec!” He shouted as he slipped off his headset and wrote a message.

_‘I forgot I offered to help this girl move in across the hall, catch you later?’_

He didn’t wait for a response as he closed the client and gave his viewers a solid send off. “Yall wanna raid the raven? It’ll be a treat since I have to leave you guys so soon. And you guys better be nice! I don’t care what her crowd says about me and you shouldn’t either, my lovelies.” 

Sending off his gaggle of followers to a raid on the Violet Raven, he only puts a single heart emoji in her chat before shutting down his setup. LEDs fading out, fans going quiet, keyboard’s soft glow going black. It would feel empty if he wasn't throwing on a jacket and running to his apartment door.

“Pinky!” Excitedly, he swung open the door to greet the young lady standing there, long pink hair tied up in a messy bun, illuminated by the overhead lights.

“It’s Seraphine, actually!” She beams. “Now that I think about it, I didn’t give you my name before, but neither did you, so now we’re even!” 

“Rakan, at your service.” He bowed theatrically. “Welcome to the neighborhood! So are you from around here or are you new in town?” In an attempt to make conversation as he followed her down the stairs, he cocked his head in curiosity.

“I’m from out of state, actually! I’m moving here to hopefully get my music career some wheels.” Idly, she brushed her hair behind her ear. Making her way across the short parking lot, she popped the trunk with her key fob as they approached. 

“Music? You play an instrument?” Rakan reached in and picked up a heavy plastic bin with little issue before he turned to Seraphine. 

“I’m a singer! Or, I’m trying to be, anyway. That’s why I’m here; I sent a few demos to a few producers and,” It was all in one ear out the other from that point. He understood she was a talented singer and that’s all there was to it. 

“When are you gonna let me hear you sing?” Setting the bin on the pavement, he pulled a few shoddily taped boxes from the trunk and feigned weakness as he lifted them to place on the lid. “It’s the least you can do for me after all of this intensive labor out here in the cold.”

She closed the trunk with a thud, a few smaller boxes in hand. “After I’m fully moved in, maybe you can come over and I’ll let you listen to my demo!” With a giggle and a bright smile she walked back to the stairs. “So what do you do, stranger?” 

Hoisting up the stack of boxes he’d created, he looked at her between the cracks. She was only two steps ahead, but as that height, she was finally at head level with him. He found the height difference amusing, to say the least. “I play video games for thousands of people to watch.” 

Seraphine stopped in her tracks to look back at Rakan, near eye level behind her. “That’s a thing?” Curiosity peaked her words.

“Yeah! Professional title is just... Streamer, I guess?” He didn’t think much of it, sometimes he forgets streaming videogame play isn’t a common knowledge job. A little niche, maybe. But the joy he brings to himself and others with his antics was enough. It was just an added bonus that it could pay the bills. 

She hummed in thought. Reaching the top of the stairs, she clumsily unlocked the door, gently kicking it open and flipping the light switch with her arm. “Just set those in the living room!” 

Entering what was presumably the living room area, all he found was a fluffy beanbag chair, a laptop, and an array of notebooks and writing utensils. And a few sheets of adorable stickers. That was cute. She had just moved in so it made sense she doesn’t have a lot going on but from this alone he’s warmed at how welcoming her personality truly seems. He can only hope California doesn’t chew her up and spit on her dreams.

“Anything else you-” Turning to see her over the counter in the kitchen, he catches something out of the corner of his eye. A vinyl record hung on the wall. “Vinyl’s your thing?” 

“Oh! That’s my dad’s. It’s one of his favorites and he told me to take it and play it if I miss him and mom.” Her expression softens as she sighs, looking at the framed record.

“That’s awesome! Hope you don’t get too homesick, but you’ll probably be too busy with the whole music career thing to think too much about that.” He makes his way to the door and rests his hand on the knob. 

“It was nice meeting you, by the way!” Seraphine chimes, rummaging around in her kitchen, putting away dishes from boxes she’d carried in. “I’d offer to let you hang out with me if you’re not busy, but as you can see there’s not a whole lot going on in here, so I’m sure you have better things to get back to!”

Rakan hesitated for a split second. What was he going to do when he got home? Stream had ended early so he could do other things, but now he was just thinking about his new gaming friend. 

He was thinking about her a whole lot, actually.

“I could help you unpack, just tell me where to put things!” He turns his head to see her still putting away kitchen utensils. A pair of adorable novelty salt and pepper shakers shaped like black and white cats were set on the counter. 

“Thank you so much for offering! I actually won’t be able to take most of this stuff out until I get new furniture, but that won’t be until tomorrow at least!” She stopped what she was doing to look at him in the doorway. “If you don’t have anything to do then, you’re welcome to come back!” 

“Sounds great!” He patted his pockets in search of his phone he'd left on his desk. “I’ll give you my number so you can text me. In case you catch me slaving away at my desk, hard at work for my adoring crowd.” Seraphine chuckled, taking out her phone and letting him enter number before sending him on his way back across the hall.

Entering through the door and locking it behind him with a faint click of the deadbolt, he looked at the state of his own living room. A sunset gradient throw blanket draped over the cream suede couch. A TV stand with a few consoles, currently a mess of unmanaged cables underneath. At either side stood two tall shelves filled with games and the occasional figure from any media he cared about. 

Two of those figures being the character he and the Violet Raven played. He shook his head and tossed his jacket on the couch.

And that's when the silence hit him. It wasn’t so bad when he had a roommate, but when he moved into his own place, he truly underestimated the volume of nothingness. No chat to keep him occupied, no one to perform for, just him alone with the walls around him. 

Times like this made him miss living with his parents, too. Mama’s boy? Maybe. Missing the household noise? Absolutely. 

It wasn’t the end of the world by any means, it just made him feel… Empty. There was no other way to describe it. He didn’t have depression or anything like that, it was just a matter of needing to keep his mind occupied. He _dreaded_ being bored. He considered starting his stream again, but he already sent his viewers to Raven.

_That was it._

Doing a little spin as he rounded the corner to the kitchen cupboard, he pulled down a metal bottle with a twist cap covered in company stickers. Pressing it up to the fridge water dispenser, he hummed a tune and opened the stream app on his phone. Not bothering to look at the chat, or the actual game play, he couldn’t help but just watch _her_. 

Was that creepy? The idle thought passed through his mind as he wandered to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He landed at the consensus of _‘not creepy_ ’ to admire people for their looks. He didn’t think it was weird when his fans did, so why would it be weird if he did.

Stepping into his room he took off his shirt and put on a comfortable pair of sweatpants, flicking off the main light before rolling into bed. 

What was happening? Was this what his watchers felt while watching him? He felt so soft but at the same time so… cold.

He couldn't help but write at least one thing in her chat before clocking out for the night. _'How are you so talented AND gorgeous? Save some for the rest of us'_

The smile that lit up her whole face made Rakan’s heart skip a beat. She had probably just won a game, but he wasn’t paying attention to that. In his mind, she had just read his message. Closing his eyes with a smile of his own, he fell asleep to the sound of the raven’s voice. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I'm not going for the "Give the love interest the wrong idea" trope but it just. happened. Not like xayah cares (yet)


End file.
